The Cultures of American Film

Robert P. Kolker

Weaves together the complex and interconnected relationships among film, its makers, its audience, and the culture of which they are a part

Integrates different approaches (chronological, cultural, analytical) to achieve a comprehensive overview of American film

Analyzes films within their societal structures, so as to provide a detailed cultural context

End-of-chapter suggestions for further reading and further critical analysis push the student to dig more deeply into American film's rich history

The Cultures of American Film

Robert P. Kolker

Description

Since its inception in 1894, American film has developed many genres and created many important directors and stars, while maintaining an intensely loyal audience. How has this incredibly popular medium managed to stay so relevant for more than a century?

The Cultures of American Film's chronological organization provides a historical overview of film, while its analytical approach addresses form and content: how films work and how we respond to them. Placing films in their cultural contexts, it examines and analyzes the ways in which film works on an individual level and within society.

The text provides close analyses of films from the nineteenth century to present day, discusses how and why films are made, and investigates the responses that films require and we desire. Suggestions for further reading and critical analysis appear at the end of each chapter.

The Cultures of American Film

Robert P. Kolker

Table of Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTIONDefinitions of CultureFilm FormThe Form of This BookMethodologyA Word about Directors

Chapter 1. IN THE BEGINNING (1893-1903)- Uncle Josh- McKinley- The Real ThingOrigins in PhotographyEdisonShow and Tell and Show MoreEarly Film FormManufacturing FilmOf Time and SpaceThe Great Train RobberyModernity

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 2. THE STUDIOS AND THE STARS (1907-1928)The Studios- How the Individual Studios Came into Being- Universal- United Artists- Paramount- Warner Bros.- MGM- Fox- Columbia- RKO The Immigrant's LegacyThe Producer SystemStars- Star and Celebrity- Flappers and Vamps- The Stories We Tell About Stars

Chapter 4. THE DISTRESSING LEGACY OF D. W. GRIFFITH (1908-1925)Beginnings- The Trust- W. K. L. DicksonGriffith at Biograph- Pantomime- Naturalism- Parallel Editing and Screen Space- Griffith's Stories and the Critics- The Long FilmThe Birth of a Nation- Race in the Early 20th Century- The Klan- Formal Methods- The Captivity Narrative- The Birth of a Nation and Woodrow Wilson- The NAACPOscar Micheaux- Within Our GatesGriffith after The Birth of a Nation- Intolerance- Broken Blossoms- A Career in Decline

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 5. SILENT COMEDY (1903-1936)OriginsComedy and ModernityThe Chase- Seven ChancesKeaton and ChaplinBuster Keaton- The Three Ages- The Play House- Sherlock, Jr. - Steamboat Bill, Jr. Charlie Chaplin- Chaplin and Modernity- The Tramp- A Dog's Life, The Kid, The Gold Rush, A Woman of Paris- The Sound Films- Modern Times

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 6. BETWEEN THE WORLD WAR I AND THE COMING OF SOUND (1913-1927)Politics, the War, Prohibition, and RadioThe Jazz Age- Our Dancing Daughters- ItWorld War I- Wings- Hearts of the World- The Big Parade- 7th HeavenDeMille and Melodrama- The Cheat and Manslaughter- The Ten CommandmentsThe Women- Alice Guy Blaché and Lois Weber- Matrimony's Speed Limit- The Blot and Too Wise WomenErich von Stroheim- Naturalism Revisited- GreedThe European Influence- Expressionism- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari- Murnau and SunriseThe End of the Silent Era

SelectedFilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 7. THE COMING OF SOUND (1927-1931)Early Technologies of SoundThe Jazz Singer- Jewishness and BlackfaceConversion to SoundThe Cultures of Sound

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 8. AMERICAN FILM AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION (1931-1935)The Great Depression- The Depression in Hollywood- Heroes for Sale and Wild Boys of the Road- American MadnessThe 1930s Musical- The Forgotten Man Choreographed- Love Me Tonight- Astaire-Rogers- Busby Berkeley- Gold Diggers of 1933

Chapter 13. DIRECTORS OF THE FORTIES: JOHN FORD, ORSON WELLES, ALFRED HITCHCOCK (1941-1946)The AuteurJohn Ford and The Grapes of WrathOrson Welles and Citizen Kane-Welles after Kane: The Magnificent Ambersons- The StrangerAlfred Hitchcock- Shadow of a Doubt- Notorious

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 14. FILM NOIR (1944-1950)The Questions of NoirWhere Did Film Noir Get its Name?How did Noir Develop in Hollywood Without Anyone Knowing About It?Noir and American CultureWhat is Film Noir?- Lighting- Themes and Content- Gender in Film NoirFilms Noir- Murder, My Sweet- The Big Sleep- Double Indemnity- Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street- Noir and Melodrama: The Case of Mildred Pierce- Orson Welles and The Lady from Shanghai- Anthony Mann and T-MenNoir and the Production Code

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 15.HOLLYWOOD AFTER WW II (1946-1960)The Best Years of Our LivesHollywood Under Siege- The Divestiture- Size MattersAre You Now or Have You Ever Been a Member of the Communist Party?- HUAC- The Hollywood Ten- The Blacklist- The End of the BlacklistSocially Conscious Cinema- Anti-Semitism: Crossfire and Gentleman's Agreement- Postwar Film and Race: Pinky and No Way Out- Anti-McCarthy, Anti-HUAC Films: Storm Center and Salt of the Earth

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 16. FORD, WELLES, AND HITCHCOCK IN THE 1950S (1948-1960)John Ford and the Western- Fort Apache- The SearchersOther Westerns- High Noon- Johnny Guitar and Silver Lode- The Westerns of Anthony Mann: The Man from LaramieOrson Welles and Touch of EvilAlfred Hitchcock- North by Northwest and The Wrong Man- Vertigo- Psycho

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 17. SCIENCE FICTION IN THE 1950S (1950-1956)Postwar Fears from Outer Space- The Thing from Another World- The Day the Earth Stood Still- Forbidden Planet- Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 18. NEW METHODS IN ACTING AND NEW DIRECTIONS IN FILMMAKING (1950-1959)Film ActingThe Actor's Studio- Marlon Brando and James Dean- Nicholas Ray: In a Lonely Place, Rebel Without a Cause, Bigger Than Life- TheWild One- Marlon Brando and Marilyn MonroeEpilogue to the 1950s- Sam Fuller- The Naked Kiss- Pickup on South StreetA New Wave

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 19. DECLINE AND RENEWAL (1960-1967)Epic Decline- Paramount- Universal- Warner Bros.- 20th Century Fox- ColumbiaExplosionThe New WaveThe Auteur RevisitedThe End of the Code and the Beginning of the Ratings System

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 20. WOMEN, MEN, AND SUPERHEROES (1980-2012)Visual Pleasure- Norma Rae and SilkwoodBy and For Women- Desperately Seeking SusanThe Male as Object of the Gaze- TopGunThe Monstrous Gaze- Fatal AttractionStrong Men in the Age of Reagan- Raiders of the Lost Ark- Rambo- Die HardThe Superhero and the Digital Domain- Batman- The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises- Super

Chapter 22. RISE OF THE MODERN DOCUMENTARY (1920-present)The Early Documentary- The Man with the Movie Camera, Nanook of the North, The Plow that Broke the PlainsThe Maysles Brothers- Cinéma Vérité and Salesman- Gimme Shelter andGrey GardensMichael Moore and the Political Documentary- Fahrenheit 9/11The Contemporary War Documentary- Restrepo- RedactedErrol Morris- Standard Operating Procedure and The Fog of War

Chapter 24. THE NEW HOLLYWOOD AND AFTER(1967-2006) Part OneThe Collapse of the Code and the Studio System and the Rise of the CountercultureArthur Penn and the Counterculture- Bonnie & Clyde- Alice's Restaurant and Little Big Man- Four Friends- Night MovesAIP and Easy RiderRobert Altman- MASH- Altman after MASH- McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Wild Bunch, and More About Film Violence- Nashville and Secret Honor- Short Cuts- Magnolia

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 25. THE NEW HOLLYWOOD AND AFTER (1972-2011) Part TwoFrancis Ford Coppola- The Godfather- The Conversation- Coppola and the Vietnam War Film- Apocalypse NowSteven Spielberg- Jaws- Close Encounters of theThird Kind - E.T. and War of the Worlds- Schindler's List- MunichMartin Scorsese- Who's That Knocking at My Door- Mean Streets- Taxi Driver- Raging Bull- Goodfellas- The DocumentariesMichael Cimino, the End of United Artists, the End of the Auteur- The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 26. AMERICAN FILM IN THE 1990S AND 2000S Multiple Screens Independent CinemaPostmodern Filmmaking: Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone- Pulp Fiction - Natural Born Killers- JFKJudd Apatow- Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky BobbyDavid Fincher- Fight ClubA Study in Contrasts- Dinner for Schmucks-The Notebook- The Bourne Identity- SyrianaIn Praise of DiversityBlaxploitation- Shaft and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss SongSpike Lee- She's Gotta Have It and Do the Right ThingTyler Perry- Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself

Selected FilmographySuggestions for Further Reading

GLOSSARY

INDEX

The Cultures of American Film

Robert P. Kolker

Author Information

Robert P. Kolker is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Maryland and teaches in the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Program at the University of Virginia. He is the author of A Cinema of Loneliness, and editor of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: A Casebook, Kubrick's 2001: New Essays, and the Oxford Handbook of Film and Media Studies, all published by Oxford University Press.

The Cultures of American Film

Robert P. Kolker

Reviews and Awards

"Lively, informal, provocative, and unintimidating-in short, student-friendly! The book serves as a fine introduction to American film, with a nice balance of historical and cultural context and extended looks at particular directors and their films."-Gregory Miller, California State University, Bakersfield

"This book addresses what many film texts lack: the role of culture. It offers a historical retelling of film from the perspective of the filmmakers who shaped American life."-Courtney Feldscher, Boston University

"A well-written and compact work that is accessible and that will benefit a broad range of students in a diversity of courses."-Sam Girgus, Vanderbilt University